Alcohol consumption and gender gap in all-cause mortality in Russia

Background: The phenomenon of a higher mortality rate for men compared with the mortality rate for women, known as the health-survival gender paradox, has not yet been fully explained to this day. Previous studies have shown the important role of alcohol in the etiology of a high gender gap in all-cause mortality in the republics of the former Soviet Union. Objective: This study aimed to compare the trends in alcohol consumption and absolute/relative gender difference in all-cause mortality in Russia. Method: Trends in alcohol consumption and absolute/relative gender difference in all-cause mortality from 1956 to 2015 were analyzed employing ARIMA time series analysis in order to assess bivariate relationship between the time series. Results: The results of the time series analysis suggested a positive relationship between alcohol consumption and absolute and relative gender difference in allcause mortality: one liter increase in alcohol consumption per capita was associated with an increase in the absolute and relative gender difference by 6.0% and 1.4% respectively. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study provided support for the previous findings that alcohol was a major contributor to the high gender gap in all-cause mortality and its dramatic fluctuations in Russia during the last few decades.